Jonathan's Space Report No. 379 1998 Nov 9 Cambridge, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle, Mir and Station ------------------------ The Spartan 201 satellite was deployed from Discovery on Nov 1 and retrieved on Nov 3. Spartan 201 is on its fifth mission to observe the solar corona, and this time will be used to recalibrate the SOHO satellite which recently resumed observations of the Sun. Discovery landed at 1703:31 UTC Nov 7 on runway 33 at the Shuttle Landing Facility. On the Mir complex, crew Gennadiy Padalka and Sergey Avdeev are unloading the Progress M-40 cargo ship docked at the rear (+X, Kvant) docking port. The launch of the Zarya module is scheduled for Nov 20 from complex 81L at Baykonur (5-GIK) aboard a three-stage Proton-K (8K82K) launch vehicle. Errata ------- The GE 5 satellite does not have C-band transponders; it is a purely Ku-band satellite. In recent editions of my geo.log file, the IDs for Turksat 1C and Arabsat IIA were mistakenly exchanged. The files geo.log and launchlog.txt have been corrected and updated. Recent Launches --------------- Panamsat's PAS 8 satellite was launched on Nov 4. An International Launch Services Proton, built by Krunichev, placed the PAS 8 in orbit. The Energiya Blok DM3 upper stage made two burns to deliver PAS 8 to a 6784 x 35941 km x 17.3 deg transfer orbit. PAS 8 is a Space Systems/Loral FS-1300 satellite with 24 C-band and 24 Ku-band transponders. It is due to be located over the Pacific after its R-4D apogee engine raises the orbit to geostationary, and will provide international communications services for Panamsat. Boeing's Delta 2 launched five Iridium comsats into low earth orbit on Nov 6. The new batch includes Iridium 2, one of three prototype satellites now refurbished for flight. Launch of the Delta 7920 from Vandenberg Air Force Base entered a 168 x 539 km x 86.4 deg parking orbit, and then placed the five satellites in a circular 516 x 530 km x 86.0 deg polar orbit, in plane 5 of the system. The second stage then lowered its orbit to 243 x 512 km so that it will reenter quickly. The ROSAT X-ray observatory ceased science observations in September after accidentally pointing at the Sun again and burning out its remaining camera. ROSAT was launched in June 1990 and operated well beyond its original expected lifetime. Spacecraft controllers in Germany are carrying out end-of-life tests with the satellite. Table of Recent Launches ------------------------ Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Oct 3 1004 STEX ) ARPA Taurus Vandenberg 576E Technol. 55A ATEX ) Oct 5 2251 Eutelsat W2 ) Ariane 44L Kourou ELA2 Comsat 56A Sirius 3 ) Comsat 56B Oct 9 2250 Hot Bird 5 Atlas IIA Canaveral SLC36B Comsat 57A Oct 20 0719 UHF F/O F9 Atlas IIA Canaveral SLC36A Comsat 58A Oct 21 1637 ARD ) Ariane 5 Kourou ELA3 Technol. Maqsat 3) Technol. 59A Oct 23 0002 SCD-2 Pegasus Canaveral RW02/20 Rem.Sens. 60A Oct 24 1208 Deep Space 1) Delta 7326 Canaveral SLC17A Probe 61A SEDSAT 1 ) Amateur 61B Oct 25 0414 Progress M-40 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 62A Oct 28 2216 Afristar ) Ariane 44L Kourou ELA2 Radio com 63A GE 5 ) Comsat 63B Oct 29 1919 Discovery ) Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 64A Spacehab ) Laboratory 64A Oct 30 1845 PANSAT - Discovery, LEO Test sat 64B Nov 1 1703 Spartan 201 - Discovery, LEO Astronomy 64C Nov 4 0512 PAS 8 Proton-K/DM3 Baykonur Comsat 65A Nov 6 1337 Iridium 2) Delta 7920-10C Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat 66A Iridium 83) Comsat 66E Iridium 84) Comsat 66D Iridium 85) Comsat 66C Iridium 86) Comsat 66B Current Shuttle Processing Status _________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 3 STS-93 Mar? 1999 OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 1 STS-92 Oct 1999 OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 2 STS-101 Aug 1999 OV-105 Endeavour LC39A STS-88 Dec 3 MLP2/ LC39B MLP3/RSRM-67/ET-97/OV-105 LC39A STS-88 .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 | | Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | | | Astrophysics | | | 60 Garden St, MS6 | | | Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@cfa.harvard.edu | | USA | jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu | | | | JSR: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html | | Back issues: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/jsr/back | | Subscribe/unsub: mail majordomo@head-cfa.harvard.edu, (un)subscribe jsr | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'